Mysterion, January 2023

“Daughter of Omega” by Matthew P. Schmidt

“The Baptismal Status of Persons Wetted by the Sprinkler Deluge” by Andy Dibble (reprint, not reviewed)

Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf

“Daughter of Omega” by Matthew P. Schmidt takes place after an artificial intelligence of immense power revealed that humanity existed inside a simulation manipulated by a mysterious entity. A war between the AI and the entity followed, with much destruction of the simulation and many human deaths.

The protagonist is a young woman resurrected by the AI to serve as its spokesperson. She abandoned her Christian faith at the time of her death. The plot concerns a meeting with her uncle, a Catholic priest who opposes both the AI and the entity. The two humans and the AI form a partial alliance against the entity, and the woman reconsiders her faith.

This is an imaginative science fiction story, with more complexity than I have indicated above. It seems appropriate to the theme of indecision that the nature of the entity remains unknown, and that the woman is still uncertain about her service to the AI at the story’s conclusion. The author succeeds in making an extraordinary premise believable through the use of realistic details.

Victoria Silverwolf had a Good Samaritan reattach her car’s battery recently after the vehicle died.